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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26629405">Dance With Me?</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Riddle_of_the_sphinx/pseuds/Riddle_of_the_sphinx'>Riddle_of_the_sphinx</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Team Fortress 2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>A little bit of angst, A very long oneshot, Alternate Universe - Fusion, Alternate Universe - Steven Universe Fusion, Alternate Universe - Team Fortress 2 Fusion, Canon-Typical Violence, Declarations Of Love, Fluff, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, I wanted a fluffy TF2 fusion fic, Love Confessions, M/M, Nothing like fusing to bring all of your hidden feelings to the surface, Oneshot, Scout is jealous, Small bit of angst, Stargazing, TF2 Fusion, TF2 Fusions, You don't have to know anything about Steven Universe to read this, basically I am making Medic and Scout into the TF2 version of Sapphire and Ruby, fairly long oneshot, just want to make that clear, long shot?, not a whole lot, so I wrote this</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 07:22:05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>20,588</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26629405</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Riddle_of_the_sphinx/pseuds/Riddle_of_the_sphinx</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Fusion was a rarely used, but very powerful tool in a mercenary’s arsenal. When a situation was dire, and it looked like the fight was lost a fusion was sometimes all it took to change the tide of the battle. Everyone has a story of how they fused with a team mate to save the day. Everyone knew how it felt for them to be fused with another to create a whole new person. Everyone but Scout that is. No one ever fuses with Scout.  </p><p>Scout desperately wishes to know what it is like to fuse with someone. Luckily for him Medic is willing to fulfill that wish. Scout wasn’t sure what to expect from fusing with the Medic. He certainty didn’t expect the fusion to bring both his and the Medic’s hidden feelings to the surface. With that said Scout can’t say he minds too much…</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Medic/Scout (Team Fortress 2)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>33</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>96</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Dance With Me?</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Fusion was a thing that Scout was both confused and fascinated by in equal measures. He had the concept explained to him hundreds of times already by both the Medic and the Engineer, and he still couldn’t wrap his head around it. Apparently the machines connected to their hearts that made ÜberCharge possible also made fusion possible. Medic would happily go into some long speech about how it was possible when Scout asked, but those speeches were filled with so much medical jargon Scout would need a dictionary just to figure out half of what he was saying.</p><p> Although, even if he did understand half of the words that were coming out of the German man’s mouth Scout doubted he would gain any sort of clarity. No matter how hard he tried he could never completely understand how two or more people could come together and fuse into a whole new person by just doing a little dance together. A whole new person that usually had multiple limbs, more than two eyes, and powers that were almost magical in nature. Honestly, most people would have a hard time processing it so one could forgive Scout for having trouble with it. With that said he wasn’t completely clueless when it came to fusions. He couldn’t understand the medical science behind it, and he really couldn’t understand Engineer’s technical explanation either. However, he could understand the dumbed down emotional aspect of fusion that Engineer had given him. </p><p>“As far as we can tell for fusion to happen at all you have to have an emotional bond with the person that you are fusing with,” Engineer had explained over breakfast one day when Scout once again started asking about how fusions worked. “You also have to be in perfect sync together mentally, physically, and emotionally.”</p><p> “What sort of bonds?” Scout had asked. </p><p>“The bonds you have with friends, the bonds you have with family, or even the bond you have with someone you love romantically would work for fusion. You just need some sort of emotional connection with the person you want to fuse with to make it happen.”</p><p> “Does the connection have to be a friendly one? Could you fuse with a guy if you really hated them? I mean that’s a strong connection isn’t it?” Scout asked. </p><p>“Not sure,” Engineer confessed. “If you could I imagine the fusion would be highly unstable. It would probably fall apart seconds after fusing. You need to have a good connection with the person you are fusing with to keep it stable. If at least one person in the fusion is emotionally unstable, or if there is a strong conflict of emotion between the people in the fusion the fusion falls apart. Strong overwhelming emotions seem to be enough to cause a fusion to destabilize too.” </p><p>Scout had cringed a bit at the mention of destabilizing. Watching a fusion fall apart wasn’t exactly pleasant. He still remembered watching Spy and Soldier’s fusion fall apart. The fusion had been impressive at first. Their fusion had been a terrifying combination of Spy’s sneakiness and cleverness combined with Soldier’s ruthless firepower. It had been almost comical to watch the fusion make himself invisible to sneak up on the BLU team only to blow them sky high with Solder’s rocket launcher. The fusion himself had been a giant of a man that was serious and spoke rather eloquently like the Spy, but he had an obsession with completing the mission that was all Soldier. He had worked pretty well on the field until suddenly he didn’t. A disagreement over something simple like which direction they should go when running through the BLU’s base for their intel was enough to cause the fusion to fall apart.</p><p> It had been creepy to watch if Scout was being honest. The fusion had started to argue with itself in a way that made Scout think he sounded like a crazed man that had long lost his sanity. The fusion stretched and trembled like it would fall apart at any second, but didn’t quite reach the point of complete breakdown. Even when the BLU team started filling him full of lead the fusion didn’t seem to even notice. It continued to argue with itself even as the BLU’s bullets ripped him apart. The fusion finally fell apart once the BLU team had done enough damage to him, and the BLU team quickly killed Spy and Soldier before the RED team could stop them. That incident had led to Spy storming out of the Respawn room swearing he would never fuse with Soldier again. He was able to keep that promise for a good three months. A battle that was going very badly very quickly forced the two to fuse once again. The two hadn’t been happy about it, and both seemed to have silently vowed that they would only fuse again during dire emergencies. Even the fusion never seemed happy to be there. He always seemed uncomfortable in his own skin, and the second the job was done the fusion would split apart.</p><p> That incident had lead the whole team to silently agree to avoid unstable fusions as much as possible. The memory of that whole event was enough to make Scout shut his trap on the subject of just how fusions formed. Honestly, he had hit the point where he was willing to admit to himself that he would never understand how fusions work. With that said while he didn’t ask any more fusion questions after that talk at breakfast he still wanted to know what it felt like to be fused. Everyone on the team had fused together at least once. Everyone, but him that is. He wasn’t sure why. At least some of the reason was due to Scout just not being nearby when a fusion was needed. He was either too far away from anyone to fuse with them, or in Respawn when the whole fusion thing went down. It didn’t help that fusions were very rarely ever used. They were sort of a last resort kind of thing. You really had to be in sync with the people you were fusing with in order for it to work. You also needed time to do the little dance needed to actually fuse.</p><p> Why the dance was needed Scout had no idea. The best theory that he heard on the whole dancing thing was something that he heard Demo say one night when the topic of fusion came up. The man had been in that sweet spot where he was just drunk enough that he wouldn’t remember a single thing he said later, and yet just aware enough that he could spout out a few thought provoking things without even meaning to. Scout couldn’t remember how the talk came up. All he did remember was that Demoman took a quick sip of his scrumpy, and said something that made sense to Scout.</p><p> “I think dancing helps clear your mind. It gives you something for the both of you to focus on, and we already know that focusing on the same thing makes fusion easier.” Demoman sounded so serious and thoughtful when he said that.</p><p> It seemed like Demoman had actually put a lot of thought into how fusion worked. Then Demo turned right around and started crying about his missing eye, and the serious moment was gone. Still, while it was a theory that Demo tossed out while absolutely sloshed it made enough sense to Scout to accept it. At any rate doing the little dance took time, and the BLU team were not exactly going to sit around and let them have the time they need to fuse. Hell, whenever any team saw an enemy about to fuse the teams did their damn best to take the people out before they could create the fusion. Trying to fuse was basically painting a big target on your back that screamed ‘<em>please shoot me</em>’. There were other smaller problems that also made fusion a last resort. The instability of a few of the fusion combinations made them a gamble to use, and if any of the mercenaries who fused together were having personal issues with each other at the moment that tended to cause some stability issues as well. Still, even with all of this in mind it didn’t dismiss one single fact. </p><p>Everyone had fused with each other at least once. The only person who had never fused with anyone was Scout. </p><p>Fusion had been around way too long for this to be excused. Hell, Scout had seen the BLU Scout fuse with the BLU Sniper a few times. That alone was proof that it wasn’t impossible to fuse with a Scout. Scout had been around enough to see his team mates decide to fuse to try and save a battle. During those moments he was close enough to be fused with, but no one ever looked toward him to fuse. No one ever thought to fuse with him. </p><p>Clearly that had to change. </p><p><em>‘Well, it shouldn’t be too hard to find someone to fuse with.’</em> Scout had thought.</p><p> Fusion happened at least once every week. All he had to do was wait for the opportunity to present itself. Once that happened Scout just had to make it clear he was willing to fuse with someone. Easy as pie. A few days after Scout came up with his plan to fuse with someone the opportunity to fuse showed up. Battle that day had been a King of the Hill fight at the area only known as Harvest. The whole battle the RED and BLU teams were evenly matched. The control point was constantly changing hands to the point that neither team was really ahead of the other. Sometime during the fight both teams only had fifty more seconds left before they could declare victory. The RED team had managed to send the BLU Demoman, Heavy, Spy, Medic, and Engineer that had been defending the control point back to Respawn.</p><p> Unfortunately, the RED team had lost pretty much all of its members in the attack, so the only RED team members who were left were Scout, Engineer, and Demoman. Scout could capture the control point quickly, but defending it with only three people would be hard. The BLU Sniper, Soldier, Scout, and Pyro were freshly respawned and they would be on them soon. However, until they reached the control point the remaining members of the RED team had just enough time to make a fusion. The second Scout realized that he put his plan into action. </p><p>He looked at the RED Engineer and shouted out “Hey Engie! Fuse with me! I bet we could take ‘em down!”</p><p> Of course Scout’s hopes of fusing started to fade when he saw the man frown at the suggestion. Engineer just shook his head as he said “I think mine and Demoman’s fusion would be more useful here. A sentry that could shoot explosives is exactly what we need right now.”</p><p> Demoman let out a loud whoop of joy upon hearing that. The man didn’t waste any time to start up a drunken dance. Scout can’t even begin to try and figure out what sort of dance it was supposed to be. Engineer chuckles a bit at his friend’s enthusiasm, but he quickly starts dancing in a style that would look completely at home at a hoedown. While the two dances were complete polar opposites of each other it was enough to make a fusion happen.</p><p> The fusion took after Demoman more than Engineer when it came to the looks department although his uniform was all Engineer. The only difference was that the fusion had Demoman’s vest on complete with the bombs strapped onto the vest. The class symbol that covered the fusion’s uniform was a combination of the Engineer and the Demoman’s symbol. It was the image of a bomb with the picture of a wrench overlaid on top of it. Scout could only grumble under his breath as he watched the fusion do what it did best, and what it did best was create sentry guns that could launch explosives. With his sentries he was able to keep the BLU team away from them. All Scout really had to do was stand there on the last control point, and wait for it to turn red. </p><p>“Victory!” </p><p>The fusion let out a loud whoop of joy, and then promptly unfused. As Engineer and Demoman chattered on happily about their victory together Scout just stood there on the control point glaring at the two as he crossed his arms.</p><p> “Alright,” The Scout muttered to himself. “That was a bust.” </p><p>So he didn’t get to fuse this time. So what? He could always try again. He just had to wait for the next opportunity to fuse to show itself. It would be the most frustrating wait ever, but he could wait. Sure enough about two weeks later another opportunity presented itself. During an attack/defense match at the Gorge Soldier, Pyro, and Scout were the only ones left alive to protect the last control point while most of the BLU team had just respawned and were coming right toward them. It would be a while before the rest of the RED team respawned to come and help, but they had just enough time to create a fusion to hopefully hold off the attacking horde while they waited for the rest of the RED team to respawn and help.</p><p> “Soldier, fuse with me!” Scout had shouted. “I bet a fusion with my speed and your missiles would be enough to keep the BLU team away.”</p><p> “Negative, maggot!” Soldier had shouted. “What we need here is fire power! And by that I mean we need my power and Pyro’s fire!” </p><p>Pyro immediately got what Soldier was hinting at. The firebug started to clap his hands together in glee as he immediately started spinning and prancing toward Soldier to fuse. If Scout had to describe the dance he would say it looked like an overenthusiastic toddler attempting to do a ballet dance. Meanwhile Soldier looked like he was doing a very stiff version of the robot. All Scout could do was step far back and watch the fireworks. Pyro and Soldier’s fusion was chaotic energy at its finest. The fusion had on Pyro’s mask so Scout could not really tell who the fusion took more after. Although, honestly when Pyro and Soldier’s fusion came out to play studying the fusion was not on Scout’s list of things to do. It was sort of hard to really get a good look at it when it was rocket jumping all over the place setting anything that moved on fire.</p><p> As it burned the BLU team to a crisp Scout could hear his muffled laughter all the way from the control point. It was very unsettling if Scout was being honest. When the rest of the RED team came rolling out of the Respawn Room they took one look at the madly laughing fusion and promptly decided to just stand back with Scout and avoid getting stuck in the crossfire. When the time ran out and the BLU team was left running with their tails between their legs Soldier and Pyro unfused leaving behind two clearly happy mercenaries. Pyro and jumping up and down clapping his hands like some happy kid that just got a pony for his birthday. Meanwhile, Soldier was grinning like a madman as he looked at the RED team that were gathered together there on the control point. </p><p>“We have achieved victory, men!” Soldier cried out. </p><p>The fact that they achieved victory was great. </p><p>Truly it was...</p><p>Yet, Scout didn’t feel very victorious. He had been rejected for fusion yet again. </p><p><em>‘It’s fine,’</em> The Scout thought as he watched the rest of his team celebrate their victory. <em>‘Next time for sure I’ll get to fuse with someone.’</em>  </p><p>Next time ended up coming three weeks later, and it ended with similar results. He was rejected in favor of someone else. This went on for weeks. Every time a fusion was needed he would jump at the opportunity to fuse only to get rejected. </p><p>“Sorry, lad. I think what we need here is a fusion between me and Soldier.”</p><p>“Don’t think that will work, mate. I think a fusion between me and the Spook is what we need right now.”</p><p>“Fusion of me and Docktor would work best here. Sorry, leetle Scout. Next time, da?” </p><p>It just kept going on like that. He would offer only to be rejected. </p><p>Again.</p><p>And again.</p><p>And <em>again</em>…   </p><p>Eventually Scout got despite enough that when a battle started going south he went to the Spy of all people and asked “You wanna fuse, and win this fight?” </p><p>Spy had stared at him in silence for a real long time before he calmly lit a cigarette, stuck it in his mouth, and then smacked Scout in the back of the head.</p><p> “The hell was that for?!” Scout cried out as he placed his hand over the spot where Spy smacked him. </p><p>“You asked me of all people to fuse with you,” The masked man said. “I had to make sure you were not the BLU Spy.”</p><p> Scout glared at the man, but deep down he couldn’t help but admit that he had a point. Spy was the last person that Scout would ever want to fuse with. Yet, Scout was desperate enough to turn to the Spy for fusion.</p><p> “Come on we co-“ Scout started to say only to get cut off due to being hit by one of the BLU Soldier’s rockets. </p><p>Next thing he knew he was waking up in the Respawn Room.</p><p> “You failed!” The Administrator yelled over the speaker system. </p><p>Somehow it felt like she was referring to more than just the battle when she said that. It almost felt like she was mocking him for failing to fuse with anyone. </p><p><em>You failed! Yet again you failed to get anyone to fuse with you! No one will ever fuse with you!</em>    </p><p>Scout scowled as he flung his weapons into his locker, and slammed the metal door shut with a satisfying bang. He didn’t even wait for the rest of his team to get back to the Respawn Room. He just ran back to base and rushed off to his room. Upon reaching his room he slammed the door shut behind him and paced around his bedroom like a caged tiger. </p><p>“So what if no one wants to fuse with me?!” Scout shouted out loud. “I don’t need to fuse with anyone! I’m amazing all on my own!” </p><p>He didn’t need fusion. He had done just fine without it, and he would continue to do fine without it. He sighed as he flung himself onto his bed.</p><p> “They don’t know what they are missing out on,” The Scout grumbled. “Any fusion with me would be awesome!”</p><p> Honestly, he just wanted to say to hell with it for the whole thing. They didn’t want to fuse with him? Fine! He didn’t need them, and he sure as hell didn’t need fusion! It would be better to just let the whole fusion thing go. Just forget about it and move on with life already. Yet, try as he might the concept of fusion wouldn’t leave his head. What did it feel like to be fused with another person? Were you still aware when you were like that? He was curious. He wanted to know so badly that it almost hurt.</p><p> “Oh, for fucks sake.” The Scout rolled off of his bed. “There has to be something to do to keep my mind off of it.”</p><p> He really tried to take his mind off of fusion. He pulled out his binder full of baseball cards and tried organizing them. He had always meant to do that, but never got around to doing it. Yet, the whole time he was doing that thoughts about fusion were flying through his head. </p><p><em>Did it feel nice? Did it make someone feel really powerful? It must have felt pretty great. Almost everyone gets all excited when they are about to fuse.</em> </p><p>Scout growled in frustration as he stood up and tried putting one of his records on. Tom Jones usually helped him take his mind off of things. He grabbed his <em>Along Came Jones</em> album, and put it on his little record player. He tried to continue organizing his cards to the music, but it didn’t help. The whole time the song <em>It Takes a Worried Man</em> played thoughts of fusion were still dancing around in his head. </p><p>
  <em>Why won’t anyone fuse with me? The guys on the BLU team fuse with their Scout, so why won’t anyone on my team fuse with me?</em>
</p><p>Scout let out a small huff of frustration as he carefully placed his cards back in the binder. This wasn’t working. He shoved the binder back onto its shelf and took his record off his record player. Once that was done he stormed out of his room and made his way toward the training room. If music and baseball cards were not helping to get fusion out of his head, then maybe taking his frustration out on a few training dummies would help. He went out to the training room, grabbed a Sandman bat, and started batting baseballs into the wooden training dummies heads. Even this did nothing to get his mind off of fusion. </p><p><em>What’s so special about the BLU Scout anyway? Why was the BLU team so willing to fuse with their Scout?</em>  </p><p>Scout just grumbled to himself as he set up more targets for him to destroy. If all of the targets that he started to set up to destroy just happened to be nothing but BLU Scout cutouts there wasn’t anyone around to notice. As he destroyed one target after another his thoughts about fusion kept circling around in his head. Question after question would pop up in his brain, but no answers could be found for any of those questions. The longer it went on the more annoyed Scout got. Destroying the targets was doing absolutely nothing to calm him down, but he didn’t know what else to do. All he could do was just smash one target after another in a blind rage. He probably could have spent all night just smashing the wooden cutouts one after another, but Heavy ended up putting an end to the mindless destruction when he entered the room and called out to the angry Scout. </p><p>“Leetle Scout?” </p><p>“What?!” Scout shouted as he turned to face Heavy. </p><p>The man was standing there at the entrance of the training room looking at him with a single brow raised in curiosity. Scout was definitely an interesting looking sight at the moment. He was standing there surrounded by the broken wooden splinters of the targets that he had obliterated staring at Heavy with such an icy stare that most people would have flinched at the look. Of course the look did not faze Heavy at all.</p><p> Instead the man just said “Dinner is ready.”</p><p> Scout was very tempted to say that he wasn’t hungry. Hell, he opened his mouth just to say that only to clamp it shut. Destroying the dummies did nothing to help his mood. It didn’t get the thoughts of fusion out of his head. He could just eat dinner, and then go to bed early. Maybe the fusion thoughts would finally freaking leave his head after some sleep. Scout sighed as marched over to the weapons locker and placed the Sandman inside. He stormed out of the Training Room and made his way toward the mess hall with Heavy following silently behind him. Scout could just feel Heavy’s gaze burning into his back, but Scout didn’t say a word. If he said something he was sure he would start ranting about fusion. </p><p>Upon entering the mess hall he immediately grabbed his plate. Engineer had cooked tonight, and he went all out as usual. Fried chicken, mashed potatoes with gravy, and buttery biscuits that were to die for. It was all made from scratch, and Scout usually loved it when Engie made fried chicken. It was his favorite meal. Add onto it being made by the master cook Engineer, and you usually had a meal that never failed to make Scout smile.</p><p> Yet, today it just wasn’t enough to get rid of his sour mood. He glared down at his plate in silence as he ate. Conversation around the table was a bit subdued due to today’s loss. Although, even with today’s loss things seemed a bit quieter than usual. That was probably due to the fact that Scout was staying dead silent. That cut the noise and chatter down by at least half. Not that Scout really cared. For once in his life he really wasn’t in a talking mood. He kept his gaze glued onto his plate, but every once in a while he would look up at his teammates. </p><p>He didn’t miss the confused and concerned looks that were getting thrown his way. He could feel Spy’s burning gaze as the man stared at him like he was some puzzle that needed solving. He didn’t miss the sidelong glances that Sniper kept giving him. The lanky man clearly wanted to say something, but apparently he didn’t know how to start his line of questioning because he kept silent. It looked like no one was going to ask him what his problem was. Honestly, Scout was fine with that. He was in no mood to talk at the moment. Of course right when Scout was convinced that he could get through the meal without anyone talking to him one of his teammates decided to bite the bullet and actually try communicating with him.</p><p>“Scout?”</p><p>Scout glanced up fully intending to snap at whoever said his name, but he faltered when he saw that it was the Medic who had finally dared to speak his name. There’s a concerned look on the man’s face as he looks at the Scout. He isn’t looking at him like he’s some sort of medical problem that he just came across. No, the look on his face is softer then the serious doctor look that he usually has going on. His icy blue eyes have a spark of worry in them as he studies the Scout. A slight blush stains Scout’s cheeks as he quickly shifts his gaze back onto his plate. He’s hoping that the fact that he was clearly ignoring the call of his name would be enough for Medic to give up in trying to communicate with him. As he stared down at his plate he couldn’t help but mentally curse his luck. </p><p><em>‘Of course he would be the one who would actually try talking to me,’</em> Scout mentally grumbled to himself. <em>‘Who else would it be?’</em></p><p>Scout’s feelings toward the Medic were… complex to put it lightly. Scout liked the Medic, and not just in a ‘<em>oh, he’s a cool guy to be friends with</em>’ sort of way. Scout was sort of in love with the guy. It’s not like he had planned to fall in love with the guy. It just… sort of happened. Scout could remember the night that started it all. Just briefly thinking of the night was already causing him to take a mental trip down memory lane. It had been the night when Scout worked up the nerve to just be honest, and ask Miss Pauling out on a date hopefully without any bread related monsters interrupting. No beating around the bush. That night Miss Pauling had dropped by to deliver some new weapons for them to use, so it was the perfect time to ask her. Scout had helped her unload the new weapon cases into the base. When they were done Scout had walked her to her car, and just asked her out. It didn’t end well.</p><p> Miss Pauling had only sighed, and said “Scout, I’m sorry but I’m not interested in any romantic relationship. With all the work I do I really don’t have time for a relationship. Besides I swing for the other team if you catch my drift.”</p><p> He got what she was implying immediately. </p><p>“Oh,” Scout had said. “I-I understand. I’m sorry for wasting your time.”</p><p> Miss Pauling had only smiled at him as she said “Scout, somewhere out there is the person just for you. That person just isn’t me.”</p><p> With those words spoken she had gotten into her car and drove away leaving Scout alone. He was a bit heartbroken, but he understood that this was just the way things were. You can’t force someone to love you after all. Although, while he understood that understanding didn’t make the heartbreak hurt any less. With a sigh Scout had turned around and started to make his way back to base. As Scout was slowly making his way back to the base he happened to spot the Medic standing on the little back porch that the base had. The porch wasn’t anything special. It had a grill there that Engie sometimes used when he was in the mood to make barbeque for dinner for the team, and it was used every fourth of July by Soldier because the man was convinced that not grilling hotdogs and burgers for the fourth of July was some sort of grave sin against America. Other than that the only other thing out there was a table with nine mismatched lawn chairs placed around it.</p><p> Most of the mercenaries avoided the place during the day. It was usually too hot to really want to stay out there in the sweltering heat for any major length of time. Engie had babbled on and off about building a porch cover to give the place some shade, but he still had yet to do it. The porch really only saw real use late in the evening, or at night when the desert heat had died down enough to make being outside bearable. It looked like Medic had decided to take advantage of the place on that night. The man was out there by himself leaning up against the railing of the porch. </p><p>Scout could see Archimedes sitting there on his shoulder nuzzling up against the man’s cheek. The man was mindlessly petting the bird, but not once did he look at the bird. Instead the man had his eyes glued on stars that shinned in the sky above them. His coat fluttered behind him on the desert wind, and wind ruffled his black hair. There was a soft smile that Scout had never seen on the man’s face before. It was a gentle smile that was completely different from the crazed grins that he usually wore on the battlefield. It wasn’t like those controlled polite smiles he would give his teammates, and it was a lot softer looking then his typical happy smiles. It was a warm comforting smile that made even Scout feel a bit calmer just upon seeing it. At that moment Medic was the perfect picture of peace. For some reason that smile drew Scout in like a moth to a flame. </p><p>“Medic?” He had called out. </p><p>When Medic turned to look at him his smile had vanished. Scout couldn’t help but feel sad to see it go, but he didn’t let that disappointment show. He had just walked toward the Medic and asked “What are you doing out here?” The man hesitated for a moment before he said “I was looking at the constellations.”</p><p> “That’s the whole pictures in the sky made of stars thing ain’t it?” Scout asked as he took his place next to Medic.</p><p> “Yes,” The Medic said in surprise. “You know about them?”</p><p> Scout shrugged. “Sort of. One of my older brothers was always real into space. I would always hear him babble on about it every once in a while. Never really listened to his chatter though.”</p><p> Scout gave the man a sidelong glance as he asked “Why? Are you interested in all that space junk?”</p><p> “I do find the topic of space to be rather fascinating, but that isn’t why I am interested in constellations. My Mutter always loved constellations, and the myths connected to them. When I was a child she used to take me outside at night and tell me all of the legends connected to the stars. It was always relaxing to listen to her stories. To this day I still find it relaxing to look up at the stars, and remember her stories.”</p><p> “Your what?” Scout asked slowly.</p><p> “Sorry, my mother. Mutter means mothers.”</p><p> “Oh,” Scout said.</p><p> It wasn’t a story that Scout was expecting to hear. If anything it helped humanized Medic a bit for the Scout. Scout could empathize with finding comfort from something that his Ma did. His own Ma was brilliant at baking, and whenever his Ma sent him a care package filled with cookies one bite of those cookies were enough to bring him back to more innocent days of when he would help his mother out in the kitchen. He understood wanting to take comfort in things that brought up happier memories. For him that comfort came from the chocolate chip cookies his mother sent him. For Medic it was looking up at the stars, and thinking of all of the old stories connected to them. </p><p> “So what sort of stories did she tell ya?” </p><p>Medic had just pointed at the sky and moved his finger as if he were trying to connect the dots in the sky. “You see that group of stars? That’s the constellation of Orion the great hunter.” </p><p>Scout squinted as he stared up at the group of stars that Medic pointed out. No matter how much Scout stared at the little dots of light that shined above them he couldn’t make out any picture of some great hunter.</p><p> “So what was so great about him?” Scout asked.</p><p> Medic only smiled as he said “I’m glad you asked.” </p><p>The man then started to tell the story of the hunter and his amazing deeds, and how said great hunter met his downfall and ended up being placed among the stars. It was honestly rather interesting to listen to. Medic was a surprisingly great story teller. </p><p>When he finished his tale about Orion Scout asked the man “Got any more star stories?”</p><p> Medic apparently felt like indulging him because he just nodded, and pointed at another group of stars as he said “You see those stars? That is Lepus. It’s the hare that Orion is hunting along with his two dogs Canis Major, and Canis Minor.” </p><p>The man continued talking. He would talk about different constellations, or he would point out specific stars that were significant in one way or another. Scout listened to it all with actual interest. When Scout would chime in with a question Medic was always happy to give him an answer.  </p><p>After about an hour and a half of Scout just listening to Medic talk about stars and legends the man finally excused himself by saying “I’m sorry Scout, but I must go. I have a few experiments I want to finish up before the night is over.”</p><p> Scout just let him go all while feeling a bit sad that the moment was over. </p><p>Yet, before Medic left the man looked back at Scout and said “I’m usually always out here around ten every night to look at the stars. You were surprisingly well behaved tonight, so if you wanted to join me again I wouldn’t be opposed to it. I have many more constellations I can tell you about.”</p><p> With his offer made Medic left leaving Scout all alone on the porch. Scout was surprised by the offer, but he wasn’t going to question it. He just knew that he was going to take Medic up on his offer. When day once again transitioned into night Scout went out onto the porch only to find the Medic standing there just as he said he would be. </p><p>Upon stepping out onto the porch the man had just glanced back at him and asked “Have you ever heard the story tied to the constellation Gemini?” </p><p>“No” Scout answered. “Tell me about it.” </p><p>And so he did. On that night Medic told Scout the story of two twins who never wanted to be separated not even in death. The next night Medic told him the story about Sagittarius, and its connection to some smart centaur named Chiron. The night after that Medic told him about the story that was tied to the constellation Pisces. Night after night Scout would hear a story about some constellation. Eventually, Scout came to look forward to their nightly talks. It was the highlight of his day honestly. It was an hour where Scout could just forget everything as Medic told him some story with his soothing voice. Eventually though Medic started running out of stories to tell. Some nights the stories tied to the stars were too short to fill up an hour of time. </p><p>Not wanting to have their nights together to come to an end Scout started telling stories of his own. He didn’t know any myths, or legends. He knew absolutely jack about space. All he could do was tell stories from his life in Boston. He told Medic about every stupid scheme that his brothers dragged him into the usually ended with Scout ending up in ridicules situations that he either had to fight his way out of, or run away from. He talked about the stupid stuff he and his school friends did to pass the afternoon. He chattered on about the best baseball games that he had ever seen. Any story that he had that was even remotely interesting he told. </p><p>He honestly didn’t expect Medic to really listen. Most people started to tune Scout out if he talked too much. Yet, Medic listened to him. He never intruded, or told Scout to shut up. He laughed at the funnier stories, and asked questions as the more interesting ones. He recalled past stories that Scout told with perfect clarity. Most people didn’t do that. Most people didn’t listen to him. The fact that Medic actually listened meant the world to him. Their strange nighttime friendship soon moved onto the battlefield as well.</p><p> After a week or so of meeting up every night to stargaze Scout started watching Medic’s back a bit more on the battlefield. He watched out for any Spy that tried to stab the Medic, and he was quick to take them out before they could stab a knife into the Doc’s back. He helped Medic get to the fights faster if he happened to be near Respawn when the man respawned. Medic seemed to notice that Scout was going out of his way to help him out on the battlefield, and he started doing the same for Scout.</p><p> He always topped Scout off with a bit with his Medi-Gun if he was around during the brief moments when they were not being shot at. He also started watching Scout’s back, and making sure that no Spy got to him. Scout would never forget the first time Medic had taken down a BLU Spy who was trying to kill him. It had happened so quick Scout barely had any time to even blink. One second he heard a Spy decloak behind him, and about two seconds later he heard that Spy let out a death rattle and fall to the ground. When he turned around he saw a dead Spy at his feet and a victorious bloodstained Medic holding an Ubersaw. </p><p>The man had only smiled at Scout and said “You are always watching my back. It’s only fair that I do the same.”</p><p> The man had then run off to join the battle leaving Scout both impressed, a little freaked out at how quickly he killed the Spy, and thrilled to bits at the fact that Medic was clearly watching over him. Slowly but surely before Scout knew it he started to fall in love with the man. It just hit him one night when he was thinking about the Medic after the man had bid him farewell when their nightly stargazing session had come to an end. Being around the Medic made him happy. He was always excited to spend time with the man. He always loved hearing the man speak. He loved seeing his smile, and his strongest desire in the world was to one day have those rare gentle smiles of his aimed solely at him. Being around the man made him feel all warm and happy in a way that being around Miss Pauling never had. </p><p>He wasn’t sure how, but somehow he had fallen in love with the mad doctor. Unfortunately, Scout didn’t know what to do about it. He couldn’t go to Spy. The last time he went to Spy for love related advice it had ended in disaster. He couldn’t exactly grab a bucket of chicken, and whip out one of his classic pickup lines. He knew Medic well enough to know that wouldn’t end well.</p><p> When it came to his relationship with Medic he was afraid that saying or doing the wrong thing may put a permanent end to the friendship that had somehow blossomed between the two of them. He was stuck. Scout scowled as he ripped himself out of his memories. He tried to shove any thoughts of Medic back into the vault in his head that they came out of, but it was too late. His bad mood was all too willing to take advantage of any negative thoughts he had at that moment, and it took great delight in never letting those bad thoughts go. </p><p><em><strong>‘You can’t do anything about your freaking problems can you?’</strong></em> The little negative voice in his head said. <em><strong>‘Can’t get anyone to fuse with you. Can’t confess to Medic.’ </strong></em>   </p><p>“Scout?”</p><p><em><strong>‘You know you never asked Medic to fuse with you yet. Not that it matters. He’s never offered, and why the hell would he ever want to fuse with you anyway? No one else wants to fuse with you, so why would he be any different?’</strong></em> </p><p>“Scout, are you listening to me?” </p><p><em><strong>‘Why do you even tr-‘</strong></em> </p><p>Scout’s depressing thoughts came to a screeching halt when he felt someone place their hand on his forehead. He wasn’t surprised to see that it was the Medic who did so. The man had taken his glove off in order to feel the runner’s forehead.</p><p> “You don’t feel like you have a fever,” The man murmured.</p><p> “I ain’t sick,” Scout said quickly as he gently pushed the Medic’s hand away. </p><p>Medic let Scout shove his hand away without a fight, but he did frown as he put his glove back on and asked “Are you sure? I had been calling your name for at least five minutes now, and you didn’t react at all.”</p><p> “You couldn’t have been calling my name for that long,” Scout muttered.</p><p> “It really was that long, lad.” Scout heard Demoman chime in. “Sniper timed it with his watch and everything. Medic even waved his hand in front of your face, and you didn’t react at all.” </p><p>Scout shot the man a glare which seemed pretty ineffective. Demoman just shrugged the look off while taking a swig of his alcohol. Scout scowled a bit as he said “I was just thinking is all.”</p><p> “What could you have been thinking about to make you get so lost in thought?” Medic questioned. </p><p>The answers to that question went flying through Scout’s head before he could even stop them. </p><p><em>‘Oh, I was just thinking about how I started to fall in love with you. I was thinking about how I don’t have a freaking clue about how to tell you I love you. I was thinking about how even you wouldn’t want to fuse with me.’</em>   </p><p>They were all the truth. They were also things that Scout wouldn’t admit out loud even if his life depended on it. </p><p>“Nothing important,” Was the answer that Scout gave even if said answer made him feel a bit like a damn dirty liar. The look that everyone at the table shot him after he said that made it very clear that no one believed him. </p><p>Medic apparently decided to just get right to the point by asking “Scout, are you alright?”</p><p> “I’m just peachy,” Scout muttered as turned his gaze back down onto his plate. </p><p>From the corner of his eye Scout could see a thoughtful frown on the Medic’s face. That look made it very clear to Scout that Medic didn’t believe him at all. Knowing the Medic as well as he did Scout knew that the man would probably try to get to the bottom of whatever it was that was bugging Scout. Scout just hoped he could escape to his room before Medic could start his line of questioning. The second he was done eating he got up and proceeded to put his dishes in the sink. As he left take his dishes to the kitchen he didn’t miss the fact that Medic was whispering something to Heavy. He also didn’t miss the look that the two men shot him. They were planning something.</p><p> Honestly, the second he noticed that Medic wasn’t going to let this go was probably the second he should have just left his plate on the table and hightailed it out of there. Unfortunately, his Ma made sure to drill basic table manners into her youngest son’s head when he was a child. When someone made you a meal you should at least have the decency to clean up after yourself, and offer to wash the dishes or at least help with washing them. Any time he left dishes on a table he could just hear his Ma’s voice scolding him in his head. It also didn’t help that if Scout left anything lying around Engineer would give him some lecture about how they had to clean up after themselves and keep this place orderly because blah, blah, blah. </p><p>Honestly, once any lecture that his teammates gave him went passed the five-minute mark Scout usually stopped listening. </p><p>At any rate the mental and actual guilt trip was enough to make him stay and clean up after himself even though all he wanted to do was run to his room and hide until all of his issues with fusion finally left his brain. Upon cleaning off his plate he dumped it into the sink so it could be washed. Demoman was on dish washing duty along with Pyro, so he didn’t have to worry about the already growing sink full of dishes. Upon leaving the kitchen he saw that Medic and Heavy were already gone although they had left their dishes on the dining room table. They always cleaned up after themselves, so that was a little weird. Scout couldn’t bring himself to care though. Maybe the Doc had some experiment that he wanted to do on Heavy. Wouldn’t be the first time. He ignored the looks he was getting from the other mercenaries that were still in the dining room as he stepped out into the hall. Of course the second he stepped out into the hall he was quickly swept up into the arms of Heavy.</p><p> “What the hell, man?!” Scout yelled out as he tried to wiggle out of Heavy’s grip.</p><p>Heavy didn’t let go. He just adjusted his grip so that he was basically holding him bridal style. It wasn’t lost on Scout that Heavy had adjusted him to a position where Scout’s kicking legs could strike nothing but open air.</p><p>“Herr Scout.”</p><p>Scout freezes when he hears Medic’s voice call out his name. Whenever Medic attached the herr thing to someone’s name it meant he was annoyed, or he was very angry. His tone of voice made it a bit hard to figure out how Medic was feeling at the moment. Scout took a quick look at Medic. The man was standing there in front of Heavy looking at them. He had his hands tucked behind his back and he was standing tall and proud like a commander observing his troops. His face is completely devoid of any emotion, but Scout can’t help but shrink away a bit from Medic’s burning gaze.</p><p> “Heavy,” Medic says. “Take him to the infirmary.” </p><p>Heavy nods and proceeds to walk down the hall toward the Medic’s domain.</p><p> “Hey, I didn’t agree to any freaky experiments!” Scout shouted as he started to wiggle yet again. “Let me go ya’ big lug!”</p><p> Of course Heavy doesn’t let him go. Scout struggled and flailed around like an angry cat trying to escape from the giant man’s grip. Scout can’t help but feel a bit miffed about the fact that Heavy doesn’t even seem to be slightly affected by the runner’s struggling. The whole time they are walking Medic is marching in front of them acting like Heavy wasn’t carrying a screaming Scout in his arms.</p><p> Upon reaching the infirmary doors Medic shoves them open. Heavy follows the man inside, and once they were in the room Heavy proceeded to plop Scout down onto one of the empty beds. For one split second Scout thinks of trying to book it, but Medic is standing there in front of the doors giving Scout a look that seems to scream <em>‘Don’t even think about it.’</em>  There was no escaping from his fate here, and Scout knew it. With that said he sure as hell didn’t have to be happy about it. He crossed his arms and gave the men the harshest glare that he could muster. The two men didn’t seem bothered by the look at all which only served to annoy Scout even more.</p><p> “Stay,” Heavy says like he’s talking to a disobedient puppy. “Talk with Docktor.”</p><p> With his job done he promptly turns around and leaves. Medic lets him go without saying a word. He doesn’t even take a single glance at the large Russian man as he walked passed him. He just kept his eyes glued onto Scout. When Heavy was gone Medic didn’t say anything. He just continued to stare at Scout with those icy blue eyes of his. It felt like he was staring right at Scout’s soul or something. The Scout shifted a bit in discomfort.</p><p> Honestly, the look was just as unsettling as Medic's unnerving silence. The only thing that Scout could hear was the sound of Medic’s doves. Their cooing and ruffling of wings kept the room from being dead silent which Scout was thankful for if he was being honest. With that said it did little to take away how unnerving it was to have the Medic just stand there staring at him without saying a word. It was honestly too much for Scout to take. He had to say something to put an end to the doctor’s silence. Scout opened his mouth to say something, but before a single word could escape from his mouth the Medic finally spoke.</p><p>“What is wrong with you?” </p><p>About three different responses jumped to Scout’s mind when he heard that question. Absolutely none of those responses were the truth. He opened his mouth to spout out one of his lies, but Medic clearly knew him better then Scout realized because the man was quick to stop him before a single word could even leave his mouth.  </p><p>“Scout, I suggest you do not lie to me about this. I know it is not today’s loss that is bothering you. You are never this quiet when we lose. You complain a bit about it, but you balance back quickly from loss. By dinner time you are full of energy. You would be spending dinner chattering on about how we would beat the BLUs in the next fight. Even on bad days your favorite meal would be enough to make you happy, but today even that wasn’t enough to make you even smile.”</p><p> Scout isn’t sure how to respond to that. Medic tore apart the one lie he had that could have been at least somewhat believable. The thought of denying that anything was wrong would get him nowhere. Medic was a stubborn man who would not be satisfied with that answer. Refusing to answer would get him similar results. He would not let Scout leave until he got a real answer from him. The truth was the only thing that would set him free here. Scout sighed as he crossed his arms. Hell, did it matter if he admitted the truth at this point? He didn’t want to, but at this point he was tired and he just wanted to go to his room and sleep. He wanted to wake up tomorrow and forget all about fusion. </p><p>“You really want to know?” Scout asked angrily. “Fine! My freaking problem is that everyone on this team has fused, but me.”</p><p> The serious look that Medic had been wearing faded away be replaced by a look of surprise. The man clearly wasn’t expecting Scout to say something like that.</p><p> “No one has fused with you?” The man questioned.</p><p> “Thank back, Doc. Have you ever seen someone fuse with me?” Scout asked. “You have probably seen the BLU Scout fuse with everyone on his team, but no one on our team has fused with me.” </p><p>Scout sounded downright bitter when he mentioned the BLU Scout, but he really didn’t care anymore if anyone knew that he was upset that the BLU Scout got to do something that he was constantly denied. Thankfully, the Medic didn’t comment on it.</p><p> Instead, he just said “Not even once when I was in Respawn?” </p><p>Scout supposed that was a fair enough question. Out of all of them Medic was number one on the list of people that the BLU team wanted to take down. Anyone who could keep the enemy team alive was dangerous. He was only made more dangerous by the fact that he could ÜberCharge people to make them invincible for a short amount of time. No one could blame the BLU team for wanting to keep him off the field as much as possible.</p><p> The RED team did the same to the BLU Medic for the same reasons. It wasn’t like the RED team or the Medic made it easy to hunt him down. Heavy always made sure to try and break anyone who went after the Medic, and the rest of the team were quick to protect the Medic when he needed it. Medic could handle melee fights pretty well, and he knew when it was time to get the hell out of dodge and run toward the nearest dispenser or health kit. With that said no battle was perfect. Things happened and Medic got sent to Respawn just as much as the rest of them did. He could have missed a fusion when he was in limbo waiting to get respawned. </p><p>Ultimately, Scout decided to answer Medic’s question by asking “If I had fused you think I would have stayed quiet about it?” </p><p>Medic shook his head no. Of course the answer that question was no. Medic didn’t even have to think about it.</p><p> Scout smiled a bitter smile as he said “No one wants to fuse with me. Maybe they think a fusion with me would be unstable.”</p><p> Honestly, he was at the point that he was sure that was the reason why no one ever fused with him. A fusion with Scout would be unstable so why bother? Why try something that might fall apart when you have the option to go with a fusion that you know will be stable? Scout was sure that was the reasoning that everyone had.</p><p> “No one is ever going to fuse with me,” Scout said in acceptance. “I’m never going to know what it feels like. I’m never going to know why you all get so freaking excited when you fuse.”</p><p> Scout scowled as he stared at Medic. Medic only stared back at him in complete silence. </p><p> “That’s what my problem is. You happy that you know the truth now?” </p><p>If Medic had a response to that Scout wasn’t going to stick around to hear it.</p><p> He quickly brushed past Medic as he sarcastically said “Great talk.” </p><p>Medic didn’t stop him as he left the infirmary which Scout was thankful for. He was ready to put all talks about fusion behind him. He hurried to his room, and upon reaching his bedroom he flopped down onto his bed and pulled the covers up over himself. As he fell asleep he could only hope that Medic wouldn’t bring up fusion again….</p><p>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------</p><p>When Scout woke up he immediately felt uneasy. His talk with Medic hadn’t left his mind, and he was sure the same was true for Medic. He had left the infirmary rather quickly after admitting his fusion problem. They hadn’t really resolved anything so much as Scout had run away once his secret problem was out in the open. Scout had to admit that he was a bit worried that Medic would try to make him talk more about it, or that he would at least bring it up somehow.</p><p> Yet, surprisingly Medic didn’t say a word about it. When Scout came down for breakfast the man wished him good morning, but other than that he stayed rather silent. In fact, Medic seemed rather distracted that morning as he stared down at the fried eggs and sausages that Demoman had made everyone for breakfast. He had this look on his face like he was thinking about something. Scout could see the gears turning in the man’s head although who knows what was making the man think so hard. He could be thinking about an experiment for all Scout knew. Scout wasn’t really in the mood to figure out what was going through the Medic’s head at the moment. </p><p>He just tried to push any thoughts about the Medic away as he prepared for the day’s battle. Today’s battle was a collect the enemy’s Intelligence match, and it was being held at a place simply called Landfall. Scout actually liked Landfall. The weather there was always pleasant which was a nice change of place from most other areas that they fought at. Most places they fought at were either too freaking hot, or way too freaking cold. Landfall was a nice big area to run around in. It was like a giant forested playground that Scout could go absolutely nuts in. There were so many places to run, jump around, and hide at that he couldn’t help but have a little fun when he was there. So really Scout was expecting the battle there to go well, or at least be a bit of fun. </p><p>When the battle started at first Scout’s assumption that things would go well during the fight seemed to be the right one. </p><p>The fight started well. Scout had been quick to grab the first Intelligence suitcase and haul it back to the RED’s side of the map before the BLU Engineer could even set up one of his sentries. Soldier had been able to grab the second suitcase, and rocket jump all the way back to RED’s side of the map before anyone could stop him. However, upon grabbing the second BLU Intelligence things went south real fast. Having two out of their three Intelligence suitcases taken seemed to kick the BLU team into high gear. They suddenly got scarily competent. Anyone who got even marginally close to the BLU team’s side of the map were quickly annihilated. The RED team’s Pyro was killed the second he was spotted, and once he wasn’t around to Spy check anymore the BLU Spy would sneak in and sap all of Engineer’s buildings.</p><p> Before they knew it the BLU team had stolen two of their suitcases, and they had knocked out a majority of the RED team on their way out. Now each team only needed one more suitcase to achieve victory. Unfortunately, the RED team couldn’t do anything about stealing the BLU’s Intelligence. What few members who were not stuck in Respawn were stuck playing defense. Honestly, it wasn’t looking good. Heavy had fallen not too long ago forcing Medic to retreat back to the RED Team’s Respawn area. Soldier and Demoman had fallen not long after Heavy did after an attempt to go for the BLU’s Intelligence ended in disaster. Spy had been burned to a crisp by the BLU Pyro when he was attempting to sap the BLU Engineer's buildings. Engineer had been backstabbed by the BLU Spy when Pyro had been in Respawn, so he wasn’t around at the moment to defend the briefcase with a sentry. </p><p>The only ones left were Medic, Scout, a freshly respawned Pyro, and a just revived Sniper who had been forced out of his sniping nest by the BLU Pyro. They were all gathered around the briefcase trying to act as a defensive force, but they were also all too aware that the BLU team’s attacking force was coming right at them. They could hear the BLU Solder’s yells of excitement getting closer and closer as he rocket jumped closer and closer to their location. Even worse it sounded like the BLU Heavy was nearby, and he was getting closer with each passing second. </p><p>“That freaking Heavy probably has a Medic with a ÜberCharge with him,” Scout grumbled as he tightened his grip on his scattergun.</p><p> “He shouldn’t,” Sniper said slowly. “I was able to put a bullet in their Medic’s head before I got killed by their Pyro.”</p><p> That fact only brought Scout a tiny bit of relief.</p><p> “Do we have ÜberCharge?” Scout asked with a bit of hope.</p><p> An ÜberCharged Pyro would be a godsend right now. </p><p>Scout’s hopes were dashed when Medic shook his head and said “No, and I don’t think I’ll have enough time to build one up. The enemy Heavy would be on us before I could even get it halfway charged.”</p><p> “What do we do then?” Scout asked.</p><p> “It’s simple,” Medic said. “We use fusion.”</p><p> Scout couldn’t help but mentally sigh upon hearing that. Fusion. Of course the only answer here was fusion. </p><p>“Alright, so who’s fusing? You and Pyro? Sniper and Pyro? You and Sniper?” Scout asked. </p><p>He didn’t even bother trying to include himself in the list of possible fusions. He already learned his lesson when it came to fusions involving him. Both Pyro and Sniper seemed to perk up at the suggestion of fusions involving them, but Medic only frowned when he heard those suggestions. </p><p>He shook his head as he said “No, we don’t need those fusions. What we need right now is someone who can hit fast and hard.” </p><p>The man stared right at Scout as he said something that shocked Scout right to his very core.   </p><p> “Scout, fuse with me.” </p><p>When those words left Medic’s mouth it felt like the whole world came to a stop. Medic had spoken the words that Scout was convinced that he would never get to hear. No one ever fused with him. No one seemed to want to fuse with him. Yet, here was Medic asking Scout of all people to fuse with him. He could have asked Pyro or Sniper to fuse with him. Yet, he didn’t do that. He asked Scout to fuse with him. Finally, Scout would know what fusing with someone felt like. Better yet he was fusing with Medic of all people. The fact that he was finally going to fuse with someone was a bit overwhelming. He didn’t even know how to start this. Should he start the dance? Should Medic start the dance? Do they dance at the exact same time? He was snapped out of his thoughts when he heard Medic ask a question.  </p><p>“Do you know how to dance?” </p><p>“I know how to dance! I totally know how to dance!”</p><p>He totally did <em>not</em> know how to dance. He had never danced before in his life. The closest he ever came to dancing was at a sock hop his school held when he was ten. He had only gone because his Ma forced him to go. Something about how it would be good to socialize with his peers during a fun event. Honestly, all he did during most of the sock hop was sit on the sidelines and eat the free food. He hadn’t exactly been the only one doing that. Most of the kids who had attended had done the same thing as him. They stood on the sidelines eating the food and drinking the punch all too embarrassed to try and dance in front of their peers. </p><p>The teachers tried to gently encourage the kids not participating to dance. When that didn’t work the gym teacher threatened to give all of the kids who were not dancing an F on their report cards. To this day Scout has no idea if the teacher was allowed to do that or not. All he did know was that the threat was enough to make most of the kids get on the dance floor. Even Scout had stepped onto the dance floor after hearing that threat. His grades were pretty awful, and gym class was the only class that he got a straight A in. He really didn’t want to screw that up, so he danced. Well, he says dance but all he did was sway to the music and shuffle around a bit on his feet. It must have been enough for the teacher because Scout never got an F on his report card for Gym class.</p><p> It wasn’t really much of a dance, but it was all that Scout had to fall back on. However, there was no music to sway to here. All that he could hear was Sniper’s gunshots as he tried his best to keep the BLU team away from them, and the loud enthusiastic laugh of the BLU Heavy as he got closer and closer to Medic and Scout’s hiding place. It wasn’t exactly toe tapping music. Scout tried to imagine a song in his head to sway to, but it was hard to focus on that over the sounds of gunfire and yelling. One look at the young man made it very clear very quickly that Scout had no idea what he was doing. Medic rolled his eyes at that and quickly put an end to Scout’s rather pathetic attempt at getting ready to dance.</p><p> “What are you doing?” Scout hisses out as the doctor repositions him into a much better dancing form.</p><p> “Helping you get ready,” Medic says. “It’s clear to me that you don’t know how to dance at all.” </p><p>Scout wants to argue against that, but honestly how can he argue against the truth? His ego is a bit bruised from the fact it was apparently very clear that he had no clue how to dance, but he can mope about that later. Instead, he just lets the doctor move him into position without comment. Within a matter of seconds Medic had maneuvered them so that they looked like they were about to waltz. Medic had clearly put himself in the lead role of this little waltz, but Scout was willing to let him take on that role. Unlike Scout the doctor knew what he was doing.</p><p> Scout gave the man a look of uncertainty as he said “I really don’t know how to waltz, Doc.” </p><p>The Medic only smiled and said “Just follow my lead, mien kleiner Vogel.” </p><p>Scout blinked a few times upon hearing that. What did he just say? Scout didn’t get long to think about it. Medic was pulling Scout into the dance. It wasn’t very graceful at first. Scout stumbled a bit as the Medic pulled him along. He also stomped on the Medic’s feet quite a few times to the point that the Medic would have been justified for snapping and yelling at Scout for being such a klutz. Yet, that never happened. The doctor never lost his temper with Scout. He never shot him an annoyed look nor did he try and shout out orders to him about how he should do the dance. Even as the enemy Heavy grew closer and closer the Medic remained the perfect picture of patience. He didn’t get mad at Scout’s unsure movement or stumbling. He just smiled at him. It wasn’t a crazed grin that he would wear whenever he did one of his more ‘crazier’ experiments nor was it the bloodthirsty looking smile that he wore while out on the battlefield.</p><p> Instead, this smile was soft and gentle. It was that special smile that Scout rarely ever saw. It was a smile that he gave his birds when he was showering them with affection. It was a smile that Scout would sometimes see the older man wearing when he was outside alone looking up at the starry sky completely unaware anyone was around to see him. It was a smile he rarely ever gave to a person, and yet here he was giving it to Scout. Scout could feel his face heat up a bit at that fact. He couldn’t help but feel a bit happy to get that smile. Hell, he almost felt a bit smug about it. Everyone else got friendly smiles for sure, but no one got this soft gentle smile of his. That thought helped to calm Scout a bit. The sounds of the battle around them seemed to fade away as he lost himself in the dance. His movement started to synch up with the Medic, and without even realizing it he was dancing perfectly in synch with Medic. It was easy to get lost in their dance. It was oh so easy to get lost in the way the Medic smiled at him. </p><p>Ever so faintly he was sure he could hear Sniper say in background “I can't believe they are actually fusing.” </p><p>Those words seemed to be the trigger that finally caused the fusion to happen. It was a little overwhelming at first. A feeling of warmth just washed over him as they melted together in a flash of red light. Suddenly, he wasn’t just Scout anymore. He wasn’t the Medic either. He was someone new. They were someone new. The fusion stumbled back a little only to bump into the wall of a nearby building. He couldn’t help but just stand there for a moment and try to process everything. Feelings that felt both familiar and new washed over him like a tidal wave.  The feelings of familiarity were probably due to the Medic. The man had fused plenty of times before. He was pretty familiar with fusing while Scout was new to it in general. Yet, even with the Medic’s experience with fusion this didn’t feel like any of his other fusion experiences. </p><p>This felt… Fantastic!</p><p>It was like nothing ever felt before! He felt so warm and happy. The fusion almost wanted to compare it to being wrapped up in a hug given to you by someone you love, or wrapped up in a fuzzy blanket in front of a warm fire on a cozy winter night. Yet somehow even those comparisons seemed to pale in comparison to what he was feeling right now. He felt bubbly and energized. It felt like he just drank a whole pack of Bonk! Atomic Punch. He felt like he had enough energy to run a hundred marathons and still have plenty of energy left over. As he looked over at the window of the building he was leaning against he was just able to make out his reflection in the window. Four pairs of baby blue eyes stared back at him from behind a pair of glasses. The fusion honestly looked like a much younger Medic that had to be in his early twenties. </p><p>While most of his looks came from Medic there were signs of Scout in his form. Scout’s hat was gone, but his headset was still in place. His dog tags were even there around the fusion’s neck. The fusion’s smile had all of Scout’s confidence shining through, but it had a touch of softness to it that had to come from the Medic. That bit of softness made Scout’s usually downright cocky smirks look more like a confidant smile from someone who was comfortable in his own skin. The fusion had the typical four arm combo that most fusions between the mercenaries had. He was also much taller than Medic and Scout, but not freakishly so. He was probably a couple inches taller than the Heavy now.</p><p> He was wearing the Medic’s coat although the sleeves had been rolled up to the elbows. Instead of red rubber gloves each hand was wrapped up in the bandages that Scout usually had wrapped around his hands. His shoes were similar to the running shoes that the Scout wore, and so were the pants for that matter. He had the Medic’s familiar equipment strapped to his back, and the fusion couldn’t help but feel a bit giddy at seeing the symbol patches that decorated his coat and his Medi-gun pack. The patch was the usual giant red cross that was used to symbolize the Medic, but also included on the patch were two stylized wings that obviously came from the Scout’s Hermes inspired symbol.</p><p> “I look good,” The fusion said out loud as he admired himself.</p><p> “Admire yourself later we got company!” The fusion heard Sniper yell out. </p><p>The fusion turned just in time to see that the Heavy had finally reached them. The Sniper let out a loud curse as he quickly ducked behind some cover. The Heavy had been able to do some serious damage to his left arm, but he hadn’t been able to kill the man. Pyro let out some muffled grumbling as he tried to find a good position to attack, and hopefully not get killed in the attempt. All he was accomplishing was becoming a bloody mess. The fusion smirked a bit. He would have to fix those wounds, but he could deal with that later. Right now he had a Heavy to kill. The fusion was off like a shot moving himself behind the Heavy to take him out. Luckily, the Heavy was so busy trying to gun down Sniper and Pyro he didn’t even notice the fusion behind him.</p><p>The fusion smirked as he said “You really should pay more attention to what is going on behind you, Dummkopf.” </p><p>The Heavy didn’t even have a chance to turn around. He was being smacked to the ground with a well-placed hit against the head with the Sandman bat. Upon hitting the ground, the fusion was on him hacking away at the Heavy’s limbs with the three Amputators that it was able to conjure up. The speed that the fusion was able to destroy the BLU Heavy was terrifyingly efficient and so quick that if you blinked you would have missed everything.</p><p> “Fascinating,” The fusion murmured to himself as he looked down at his handwork. </p><p>His speed was something else. Even Scout at his absolute fastest didn’t move as quickly as the fusion did.</p><p><em> ‘This speed would be useful to have when dealing with paperwork,’</em> The fusion thought with a bit of amusement. </p><p>The amount of paperwork the Medic had to deal with could be more then overwhelming sometimes. Having this sort of speed would make organizing and signing paperwork a lot easier. Although, now that the fusion thought of it this speed would make completing experiments a lot faster too. Heck, thinking of it now he wouldn’t mind preforming a few experiments involving his speed. How much faster than Scout was he? How fast in general was he? How long could he keep running before exhaustion set in? </p><p><em>‘Going to have to test that out later,’</em> The fusion thought as he started to grin.</p><p> He shook that thought away quickly. As fascinating as it would be to test out his abilities and figure out just what made him tick he would have to put that desire on the backburner for now. There was a battle to win, and teammates that needed healing. The fusion turned away from the slowly fading BLU Heavy who was being sent back to the BLU respawn just in time to see most of his previously knocked out teammates come scrambling out of the RED respawn room with only Engineer still missing. The RED Heavy was leading the charge looking ready for a battle.</p><p> “Don’t worry Docktor I am-“ The Heavy yelled out only to come to a standstill when he spotted the fusion.</p><p> It was downright comical to watch the rest of the team come barreling out of the Respawn room only to slam right into the large Russian man’s back. The fusion can’t help but laugh at it. His laugh was a pleasant mixture of Scout’s cheery chuckle and the Medic’s more enthusiastic sounding laughter. The fusion can’t help but be fascinated by it. It was interesting to see the parts of himself that came from the Medic, and what parts of himself were clearly the Scout’s influence. It was even more fascinating to see how the parts of them mixed together to make something entirely new. It was hard to not be amazed about how they blended together to make him. All too aware of the small audience that he had staring at him the fusion gave them all a cocky grin and a lazy salute. </p><p>“Yo, what’s up?” He asked. </p><p>He doesn’t get an answer to that question. Instead, he just hears the Spy mumble in disbelief. </p><p> “Scout fused with the Medic?”</p><p>“Yep,” The Sniper confirms. </p><p>“And he seems to have the Scout’s personality.”</p><p>“Looks like it,” Sniper says. </p><p>“Oh mon Dieu,” The Spy said in a tone of voice that made it sound like he had just head that the world was ending rather than hearing that Scout had fused with the Medic.</p><p>“You say all of that like it’s a bad thing,” The fusion teases although he can’t help but feel a tiny bit irritated as well. </p><p>The Spy made it sound like his existence was somehow bad. There was no way that such a thing could be true. He could just feel the Medic and Scout agree with him. Being him felt fantastic, and nothing that felt this good could be a bad thing. The fusion let that thought drift away for the moment. He had a job to do, so it wouldn’t do to get distracted. </p><p>As he pulled out two Medi-Guns to heal Sniper and Pyro he heard Demoman ask “So what exactly should we call you, lad?”</p><p> “Don’t know,” The fusion answered. “Some part of me wants to go with the name Asclepius, but that is just the Medic part of me speaking.” </p><p>He rather liked the name although who wouldn’t like being named after a Greek god of healing? Then again another part of him thought it sounded more like a name that the Medic would give to one of his birds. Of course the Medic tended to give his birds the names of ancient Greek mathematicians or philosophers and not gods. Although, Medic did own a rather klutzy dove named Icarus so it was pretty clear that the man had no issues with dipping into Greek mythology for name inspiration.</p><p><em> ‘Getting distracted again,’</em> The fusion thought as he quickly pulled himself away from his thoughts about names and Medic's birds, and went back to the task at hand. </p><p>He pointed his Medi-Guns at his two injured teammates and smirked as he said “If it matters to any of you the Scout part of me thinks the name Quick Heal would be much more fitting.” </p><p>He pulled the triggers right after he said that. The effect his Medi-Gun had was fascinating to say the least. The second the healing beams hit Pyro and Sniper they were completely healed within a matter of seconds. It was a real blink and you would have missed it sort of moments. The speed that they were healed at was amazing, but it quickly became apparent that the fusion had done more than heal them. The second that Pyro was healed he was rushing into battle so quickly he would have made a cheetah jealous. Pyro didn’t exactly move at a snail’s pace at his normal speed, but the speed he was moving at now was almost insane. To say he was moving faster than his usual speed would have been a major understatement. </p><p>Pyro disappeared around the corner, and within a few seconds they all heard a scream that sounded a lot like the BLU Spy which was quickly followed up by Pyro’s cheerful muffled giggling that made him sound like happy child on a sugar high. A quick glance showed that even the Sniper seemed to be affected much in the same way that the Pyro was. The Sniper was reloading his gun so quickly that even the fusion had a bit of trouble following his quick movement. It was even more impressive when he was able to headshot the BLU Solider who had rocket jumped to their location before the BLU Solider was able to hit the ground. It happened so quick that the only sign that it happened was the sound of a single gunshot going off and the corpse of the BLU Solider crash landing right in front of them.</p><p> “Looks like my healing also gives you a bit of a speed boost,” The fusion commented as he looked at the body that was in front of them.</p><p> He smirked a little as he said “Maybe the name Quick Heal is more fitting then I first thought.” </p><p>That speed boost thing was actually rather fascinating now that the fusion thought about it. He was going to have to experiment with its affects later.</p><p> “If you’ll excuse me I think there is an Intelligence briefcase with my name on it that I need to grab,” The fusion said as he smirked. “I’ll be back in a flash.”</p><p> And with that he was off. His feet barely touched the ground as he raced through Landfall. He felt the wind through his hair as he ran and jumped. It felt amazing to move like this. He loved feeling the wind hitting his skin. He loved seeing how his coat fluttered behind him much like the capes that the superheroes in Scout’s comics wore. When he was running like this he felt free. Any BLUs that he came across were unable to keep up with the speedy fusion. All their bullets missed as the fusion weaved through the gunfire. Any BLU who dared to cross his path fell from being hit by the speedy fusion. Each BLU that the fusion defeated caused the fusion to let out a thrilled laugh that sounded more like Medic’s mad laughter than anything else. That laugh seemed to unsettle the BLU team, but the fusion didn’t care. The only thing that he cared about was the fact that he felt untouchable.</p><p> He was able to grab the Intelligence without any issues, and as he raced out of the building with the Intelligence in hand he passed by the RED Pyro. He could hear the Pyro’s muffled chuckling as he dealt with any BLU that was trying to follow him. His speed boost seemed to still be in effect because the firebug was able to chase down the BLU Scout with ease and light him up. He could hear the steady rhythm of Sniper’s gunshots fill the air as he shot down anyone that escaped Pyro’s flame. Apparently, he had used his speed boost to get back to his Sniper’s Nest and continue to give support to the fusion. The fusion couldn’t help but grin as he ran jumping off of the rooftops as he hurried to his destination. He almost felt like he was flying. Within a matter of seconds, he was zipping past a shocked Engineer who had been guarding their Intelligence. The fusion ignored the hardhat wearing man for the moment as he ran toward their own intelligence.</p><p> He slammed the BLU team’s intelligence down next to their own intelligence, and he felt positively giddy when he heard the Administrator say “Victory!”</p><p> “Hell yeah!” The fusion yelled out as he fist-pumped in victory. “I knew I would win this fight in record time!”</p><p> “Medic? Scout?” The Engineer said slowly as he approached the fusion. “You two fused?” </p><p>“Hell yeah they did!” The fusion said happily as he started making his way back to the Respawn Room. “I’m pretty great aren’t I?”</p><p> Engineer chuckled a little as he said “Well, you certainly have a lot of confidence. You got a name yet?”</p><p> “I’m thinking Quick Heal,” The fusion said as he shrugged slightly. “But nothing is set in stone yet.”</p><p> “You figure out any of your abilities yet?” </p><p>Those were the magic words that the fusion wanted to hear. He immediately started babbling about his speed as the Engineer followed him back to the Respawn Room. Engineer listened to the babbling in silence only chiming in every once in a while to ask a question, or to make a comment. Fusion was interesting to both Engineer and Medic. To the two of them fusion was sort of like one big experiment. Figuring out how each fusion worked, and how to best take advantage of their abilities was a point of intellectual curiosity. They needed and wanted to know how it all worked. Quick Heal was no different. He wanted to learn everything that he could about himself. He wanted to know how Medic and Scout’s abilities mixed together to create the abilities that he had.</p><p> Engineer asking about it gave the fusion a chance to finally start getting his scattered thoughts about himself out in the open. He was able to chatter on about all of the experiments and tests that he wanted to perform with no judgment from Engineer. Heck, if anything the man actually seemed interested in a few of the experiments. The fusion was still babbling away about his experiment ideas even as they walked into the Respawn Room. He was completely oblivious to the fact that everyone froze when they saw him walk into the room cheerily chatting away as Engie started to put some of his equipment away in his locker.</p><p> “We really need to test out my speed boost affect on you! It would make setting up your buildings much quicker, but I want to see just how much time it would save for you.” </p><p>“Got a stopwatch that we can use for that test,” Engie said as he placed his Frontier Justice gun in his locker. “It’s somewhere in my workshop. I’ll see if I can’t dig it up from wherever I stuck the thing.”</p><p> “Wunderbar!” The fusion cried out happy as he clapped his hands together. “You mind if I borrow that stopwatch after we finish testing my speed boost on you? I want to find out how much faster than Scout I am.”</p><p> Of course that comment brought all of the other experiments that he was thinking of bubbling to the surface as well.</p><p> “I should time the rest of the team too, and see how much faster they are with my speed boost. I want to find out how much faster Sniper is at shooting first. During battle I could tell his shooting and reloading speed had definitely improved, but I couldn’t tell by how much while on the battlefield. What I really want to do is-“</p><p><em>*Ahem*</em> </p><p>The sound of someone loudly clearing their throat was what caused the fusion to finally shut his trap. He looked away from Engineer only to see that the rest of his team was there staring at him. They were looking at him like he was some sort of unicorn that had just pranced into the Respawn Room. A bit weird, but Quick Heal was able to mentally shrug it off without any issues.</p><p> He allowed a confidant smile to show on his face as he asked “Did you see me out there? I totally won the match for us! I was so fast that none of the BLUs could keep up with me!”</p><p> No one said anything to that which was just a bit unsettling if the fusion was being honest. Still, he doesn’t let it get to him. He just continued to smile as he opened his mouth fully content to keep chattering away. Eventually someone would have to say something, or at least someone would tell him to shut the hell up. That was usually what happened to Scout at any rate.</p><p> Just as the the fusion was about to continue talking Spy cut him off by asking “You are still fused?”</p><p> He sounded rather confused that the fusion was still there. </p><p>“Yeah?” The fusion said slowly in confusion.</p><p> “Why?” The French man asked.</p><p> “Why not?” The words were out of the fusion’s mouth before he could stop himself.</p><p> He really wasn’t understanding this line of questioning. Sniper decided to have some mercy on him and put an end to the somewhat confusing line of questioning by saying “Fusions usually defuse once the battle is over, mate.”</p><p>Oh…</p><p>He understood now. </p><p>Fusions never stayed fused for very long. The second the battle was over, or the task that the fusion was made for was completed the fusion would immediately defuse without a second thought. No fusion every stayed fused once the job was done. </p><p>At least until now at any rate. </p><p>No wonder his team had looked so shocked to see him. As far as most of them were concerned he shouldn’t be there. All fusions were nothing more than tools used for the war. Once the fight was done they were supposed to be put away like any tool used for battle. The fusion tensed a bit at that thought. He didn’t want to be ‘put away’. He didn’t feel like just a tool that was used for battle. He felt way too good to be just be a weapon to be used and put away without any thought. None of the fusions that Medic had been a part of held a candle to how he felt right now. </p><p>“You should really unfuse-“ Sniper started to say only to be cut off by the fusion.</p><p> “No!” The fusion stumbled back a bit to put some distance between himself and the rest of the team.</p><p> His arms wrapped around himself in a sort of hug as he said “We don’t want to unfuse!” </p><p>It wasn’t his voice that said that. Instead it was Scout and Medic’s voice speaking together in perfect harmony that came out of his mouth. On the inside the fusion could swear it felt like Scout and Medic started to cling to each other a little tighter. It was almost like the two of them were trying to make sure that they couldn’t be split apart. The team was really staring at him now. None of them had ever seen a fusion that didn’t want to unfuse before. None of them had heard two people clearly make it known that they didn’t want to unfuse. </p><p>“We like being fused,” The two voices said together. “We feel happy. Safe…”</p><p>
  <em>Loved…</em>
</p><p>The fusion jerked back a bit in surprise at that realization. </p><p>Loved… </p><p>He felt loved when he was fused together like this. More shocking yet was the fact that the love was coming from both Medic and Scout. That observation caused a wave of emotions and thoughts from both Medic and Scout to wash over him. </p><p>Surprise that the feelings of love were returned.</p><p>Joy that their love wasn’t one-sided. </p><p>Uncertainty at what to do, or say now. </p><p>Their feelings that they had both hid had revealed due to their fusion, but now they needed to talk about it. Where did they go from here? How would this affect their lives now? How would the rest of the team take to this bit of news?  The fusion about jumped out of his skin when he felt someone gently place a hand on his arm. He looked down only to see that it had been Engineer that had placed a hand on his arm. The man gave him an apologetic smile. He obviously felt a bit bad about spooking the fusion when he was stuck in his own head. </p><p>“No one is saying that you can’t fuse together again,” Engineer said gently, clearly trying his best to comfort the fusion. “You can fuse again on and off the battlefield whenever you like.” </p><p>Spy looked like he was going to say something to that, but the look that Engineer shot him made the French man keep his trap shut. </p><p>Engineer turned his attention back onto the fusion as he said “But you know we can’t start a battle with a fusion. It’s against the rules.”</p><p> The fusion let out a small huff of irritation upon hearing that. It was true. Once fusion became a thing it was quickly made a rule that neither team could start a battle with a fusion. It was considered unfair, or whatever. Honestly, the fusion could care less about the reasoning behind the rule. The fighting was done for the day. What did any of that matter right now?</p><p> The fusion was just about to say that, but he was quickly silenced when the hardhat wearing man said “More importantly we still don’t know everything about fusion yet. We don’t know what happens to the people who make up a fusion if they stay fused for an extended amount of time.”</p><p> The fusion felt a bit torn upon hearing that. Much as he hated to admit it the Engineer had a point. The longest a fusion had stayed fused was about four hours at most. No one knew what happened if a fusion stayed fused for a whole day. If they stayed fused long enough would they stay stuck as a fusion? Would they be unable to separate? As things were now there was no real way to know. Fusion was still very new to the war, and tests were still being performed both by the higher ups and by the Medic and Engineer on both teams. Until they knew that it was safe it was best to be cautious. Still, a part of himself bristled at the very idea that he could cause harm to Medic and Scout. He could never do such a thing. He knew right down to his very core that he could never be harmful for Medic and Scout. The fusion was almost about to argue that fact too. Yet, the more rational, and very clearly Medic part of himself kicked in. </p><p><em>It's alright. </em> </p><p>It didn’t feel alright. </p><p><em>We will fuse again, and we will fuse off of the battlefield too. This won’t be a onetime thing.</em>  </p><p>The fusion sighed as he looked at the RED Engineer.</p><p> “You promise that we can fuse again off the battlefield?” </p><p>The fusion’s voice was still off. It sounded more like Scout and Medic was asking that question rather than the fusion itself. Although, Scout’s voice was louder this time. His voice filled with uncertainty while Medic’s voice was just a soft echo of Scout’s worry. Even if Engie said no they would fuse again regardless of if the team liked it or not. With that said it would be nice to know that they wouldn’t have to completely hide it when they fused.</p><p> Engineer gave the fusion a reassuring smile as he said “I promise, and once we know that being fused for long periods of time is safe the two of you can fuse all you want.”</p><p> “I’m holding you to that,” The fusion muttered in his own voice this time.</p><p> The fusion could feel a tiny bit of reluctance from both of his parts at unfusing, but they did as they were asked. With a flash of glowing red light Quick Heal was gone. Standing in his place were Scout and Medic. They had their arms wrapped around each other in a tight hug. Scout stood there for a moment and tried to enjoy the feeling of having Medic’s arms wrapped tightly around him while it lasted. A soft sigh escaped from Scout’s lips as he slowly let his arms fall away from Medic. He was about to take a step back, but Medic tightened his grip on the Scout. </p><p>“We need to talk,” Medic whispers into his ear. “After dinner meet me in the infirmary.” </p><p>With those words spoken Medic released his grip from Scout, and took a few steps away from him. Without even realizing it Scout took a step toward the man as if to try and get close to him again. The second after he took that step forward he quickly realized what he was doing and forced himself to take a few steps back. He couldn’t help it. He already missed having Medic’s arms wrapped around him. He quickly turned away from the Medic and walked over to his locker. As he placed his weapons into his locker he couldn’t help but feel a bit unsteady. It felt a bit jarring to go from being fused to suddenly being unfused. </p><p>Being fused had been fantastic. Scout could barely even describe it. </p><p>He felt powerful, and he felt like he was just overflowing with energy. Not even his beloved Bonk drinks made him feel as energized as being fused had. More importantly he felt like he and Medic were basically on the same wavelength. Everything Scout felt Medic felt, and everything that Medic felt the Scout felt. When Medic was happy Scout felt it, and he was happy right along with him. When Scout was feeling eager and determined to win the match Medic was right there with him feeling the same thing. The intensity of their feelings was so strong that it was almost overwhelming. It was like being in a fusion somehow made their feelings ten times stronger, or something. Everything they felt was shared. Almost nothing could compare to being connected so closely with someone that he cared about. It felt a bit weird to have everything charged up to maximum power only to suddenly lose it. He went from being on top of the world to suddenly feeling a bit unsteady on his feet. </p><p>Not helping matters was that Medic’s little order to Scout to come to his infirmary to talk later was playing over and over again in his head like a broken record. Scout didn’t want to wait. Scout wanted to talk now. Honestly, who could blame him? He just learned that the Medic loved him. The Medic actually loved him. Scout wanted to shout this fact so loudly that even the men over in the BLU base would hear him. He wanted to yell this fact out over and over again so that no one on the RED team would ever forget it. He wanted to just grab Medic by his fancy little doctor coat and yank him into a kiss. Would kissing Medic be as nice as he imagined it would be? Much as he wanted to find out right then and there this wasn’t the place for it. They needed to talk. They needed to talk about the feelings they had for each other, and what this would mean for the future before they did anything else. That sort of conversation was not one he wanted to have in front of the other mercenaries, and he sure as hell didn’t want to have it in front of Spy.</p><p> No, after dinner was the only time they would be free to speak to each other. The good news is that dinner would be made the second they got back to base. Battle today had run on from the early afternoon into very late at night which was unusual. Fights were usually never that long unless they were at 2Fort, but today’s battle beat any records that 2Fort had held. When they got back to the main base Medic would probably immediately start dinner, and the second dinner was done everyone would probably go immediately to bed. Good news was that would mean that Scout and Medic could talk without too many issues. Bad news was the fact that Scout had to wait, and patience was not a virtue that Scout really had. He would try though. The key word there would be try. The ride back to the main base had been a bit awkward. Everyone was still a little off their game upon seeing a fusion who didn’t want to unfuse.</p><p> Still, by the time they got back to the base everyone had more or less gone back to normal. Everyone had gone off to do their own thing while Medic had gone off to the kitchen to make dinner. That left Scout by himself to figure out what to do until he could finally talk to Medic. He had walked into the rec room, and took one look at everyone only to quickly decide that there was no way he could sit down long enough to play cards with Sniper, Engineer, Demoman, and Spy. Sitting down to watch TV with Pyro and Soldier was also a no go, and there was no way he was going to read a book like what Heavy was doing.</p><p> Instead he just stalked the halls that lead to the kitchen and dining room like a caged animal waiting to be set free. It didn’t do much to calm his mind, but moving around at least made him feel better. When dinner came Scout was the first in the dining room. Medic had made a beef stew that actually tasted pretty good which was no surprise. Engineer was probably the best cook out of the bunch, but Medic and Heavy were a pretty close second. The meal was basically one big blur for Scout. He couldn’t remember what was said over dinner. All he could remember was that he couldn’t sit still in his seat, and every time Medic looked at him the man would shoot him a sly grin. </p><p>It was honestly driving Scout crazy. </p><p>Unfortunately, the universe decided to really test Scout’s patience that night because the end of dinner did not mean that he could run off to the infirmary. He had dishes duty that night with Solder, and Scout honestly felt like screaming when Soldier reminded him of that. He tried to finish the job as quickly as possible, and the second he handed the helmeted mercenary the last dish to be put away he was running out of the kitchen and making his way to the infirmary. Scout ran like his life depended on it. Upon reaching the infirmary he didn’t even bother knocking, or anything like that. He just slammed the doors open, and let himself in. He was quick to spot Medic. The man was sitting there at his desk with Archimedes perched on his finger a soft smile on his face as he gave his favorite bird some attention. The bird let out a tiny coo upon seeing Scout, and Medic’s soft smile that made Scout feel all week in the knees was aimed right at him. </p><p>“I’m here,” Scout said. </p><p>“So you are,” Medic said as he lowered his hand so that Archimedes could hop off of his finger and sit on the desk. </p><p>Scout was quick to notice that the dove had parked himself next to a small stop watch that was sitting on the desk.</p><p> “Engineer brought it over after dinner,” Medic said when he noticed that Scout was staring at it. “He remembered Quick Heal going on about how he wanted to preform tests on his speed.”</p><p> Scout felt happy to hear that. That stop watch was proof that they could become Quick Heal again off of the battlefield. No one would stop them from doing so. It was a bit reliving to know that. He let that thought drift away for the moment as he stared at Medic. He had been waiting for this moment the second they had unfused, but now that he was here he didn’t know what to do. Should they talk first? Could Scout just walk forward and kiss the man? They both knew that they loved each other, so it would be alright wouldn’t it?</p><p> While Scout was unsure of what to do Medic clearly didn’t suffer from that problem. Upon seeing Scout’s hesitation, the man just grinned as he stepped forward and pulled Scout into his arms. Scout didn’t even get a chance to blink before he felt Medic kiss him. He froze for a second, but he quickly started kissing back. The kiss was surprisingly gentle. He always figured a kiss from Medic would be a bit rougher. With that said Scout wasn’t complaining. This loving soft kiss was something he had only ever dreamed of getting. He never thought Medic would kiss him. He never thought Medic of all people would love him. Yet, here he was in the man’s arms receiving the most loving kiss that he had ever got in his life. If he would have known fusing with the Medic would lead to this, he would have started complaining about not fusing with anyone a heck of a lot sooner. When they both separated to get some air Medic took a step back, and released his grip on the young man.</p><p>“You love me,” Medic said. The way he said that made it clear that it wasn’t a question. All he did was speak the truth.</p><p> “I do,” Scout said. “You love me?”</p><p> He knew that Medic did. Their fusion made it impossible to miss. Still, Scout couldn’t help but ask anyway. He wanted to hear Medic say it out loud. </p><p>Medic seemed to know what he wanted because he didn’t hesitate to say “I love you.”</p><p> Scout couldn’t stop the grin that was slowly making its way onto his face upon hearing that. </p><p>“Why?” He asked. </p><p>He wanted to hear why Medic loved him. Luckily, Medic was willing to indulge him. </p><p>“Well, to be honest at first I just admired how graceful you are on the battlefield. The way you move is unlike anything I have seen before. Your jumping skills alone are almost superhuman.” The man smirked slightly. “I will admit a part of me was fascinated, and wanted to know what it was that made you tick. How did your body develop to help make you into the speedster that you are? Things like that.” </p><p>Scout couldn’t help but roll his eyes upon hearing that. He wasn’t surprised to hear that honestly. At his core Medic was a scientist who always wanted to experiment, and learn all that he could about anything that interested him. </p><p>Any thoughts of how that was just the typical Medic quickly left Scout’s head when he heard the man say “However, another part of me just liked sitting back and watching you move. When you run on the battlefield you are as free as the wind. When you jump from the rooftops and the trees, and cross vast distances to reach the objective it almost looks like you are flying through the air.”</p><p> The man smiled as he said “When I watch you move I can’t help but think of a bird flying free. Mien kleiner Vogel.”</p><p> “You said that before we fused,” Scout commented. “What does it mean?”</p><p> “My little bird,” Medic answered with a smile. </p><p>Scout could feel a small blush start to stain his cheeks upon hearing that. No one he had ever dated, or even flirted with had ever given him a pet name. Especially not one like that. He had to admit that he liked having a little pet name more then he thought he would. For some reason the fact that Medic gave him such a loving pet name made this feel more real. It really helped to make it clear to him that Medic felt honest affection for him. Medic loved birds, and there was no way that he would give Scout a little pet name that was related to his favorite thing if he didn't love Scout just as much.  </p><p>Medic’s smile stayed in place as he said “While I admired your grace it was when you started joining my little stargazing sessions did my feelings for you change from admiration to love. When you first asked me to tell you about constellations I figured you would get bored halfway through the conversation, and leave. Instead, you actually listened to me. You asked questions, but you never interrupted. It was nice to share my interest in the old stories that were connected to the stars. It was nicer when you started joining my stargazing every night. You listened to my stories, and in exchange you told a lot of your own. Turns out you are quite the storyteller.”</p><p> “Of course I am! My stories are the best!” Scout said with a bit of pride.</p><p> Medic only chuckled as he said “Well, I don’t disagree with that. The stories you tell of the hijinks that you and brothers got into when you were younger were usually rather comical. I started looking forward to our time together at night. More than that I also started to notice how you were starting to look after me. When on the battlefield if I got killed sometimes you would swing by the Respawn so that you could give me a speed boost to help me get back to the front lines quicker. If Heavy or whoever I was healing went down, and you saw it you were quick to come to my aid and help me keep the BLU team off my back. You started Spy checking for me a lot more often too. I think the amount of backstabs me and Heavy suffered went down by half once you started doing that.”</p><p> The man’s smile never faded as he said “The care you started showing me didn’t stop on the battlefield either. Once you started to be more comfortable with me you started coming to the infirmary more. When I was lost in my experiments you made sure that I ate, and that I was taking care of myself. You helped me take care of my birds. It was nice to have someone other than Heavy care for me so much.”</p><p> The man’s gaze drifted looked down as he said “Once we started spending so much time together I found other things to admire about you. I admired the fact that no matter how many times you were knocked down you would just get right back up, and try again. Nothing ever kept you down for long. I admired your enthusiasm, and found your joy to be somewhat infectious. It’s rare to find someone as full of energy as you. I found myself finding joy in the way your eyes would light up when something excited you. I found myself wanting to whatever I could think of to see your eyes light up in joy, and to see a bright smile on your face. Seeing you happy was all it took to make me feel happy.” </p><p>The man shrugged slightly as he said “I never intended for my admiration to turn into anything more, but as time passed my admiration ended up evolving into something far stronger.” </p><p>Medic looked up, and stared right into Scout’s eyes as he said “Before I knew it my admiration turned into love.” </p><p>Scout was sure that he was blushing as red as a tomato at that moment, but he really didn’t care. All he could do was stand there and grin like an idiot. Never before had he heard someone gush so much about him. It was rather flattering to be honest. The fact that it was his crush saying this just made it ten times better. At that moment he felt on top of the world. It felt only fair that Scout should make Medic feel the same.</p><p> “It started with your smile for me,” Scout said slowly. “When you are alone looking at the stars, or when you are talking to your birds you get this peaceful smile on your face that you don’t really give to anything else. I don’t know why, but that smile of yours just grabs me you know? It makes me feel peaceful too when I see it. I wanted to see more of it.”</p><p> It felt a bit embarrassing to admit this, but Scout didn’t let that stop him. Medic told him why he loved him. It was only fair that Scout do the same.</p><p> The runner scratched his cheek as he said “When you offered to tell me all these old myths about constellations I figure it would be boring, but it wasn’t. When you tell, like, old as dirt stories you actually make them sound interesting. You don’t make them sound like some boring lecture that my teachers told back in school. You made the story about that Orion hunter guy sound interesting. When you tell a story its actually fun to listen to. I was hooked on your stories, and when you said you would tell me more if I ever decided to join you again to look at the stars I couldn’t refuse. I wanted to hear more.”</p><p> Scout shuffled his feet a little as he said “I liked hearing your stories, but I liked it even more that you actually listened to mine. Whenever I talk a lot of times people start tuning me out because they think I talk to much or whatever. I can tell when people aren’t listing, and they are just nodding along or making noises to make it seem like they actually care about whatever I’m saying. You never did that. You always listened when I talked. You always asked questions, or made comments about my stories no matter how long they were. You never brushed me off, or ignored me.”</p><p> Scout could probably never really make it clear to Medic how important it was that the guy never ignored him. As the youngest of eight brothers he was used to being pushed to the side, and forgotten. He learned to be loud and in people’s faces because that was one of the few ways he could get people to actually pay attention. However, even then people would eventually brush him aside, or they would ignore him. It meant a lot to Scout to have someone who always wanted to hear his stories. It meant so much to him that Medic actually bothered to remember the stories that Scout told him.</p><p> Scout couldn’t bring himself to look up at Medic as he said “You talk about how I watch your back on the battlefield? Well, you do the same for me. These days I don’t even need to call your name for healing. The second you see that I’m hurt you just heal me no questions asked. You say I’m always Spy checking for you and Heavy? Well, you do the same for me. You always let me know who’s in Respawn and who isn’t in Respawn so I know if that freaking Spy is trying to disguise himself as one of our knocked out teammates. Hell, you have stabbed the BLU Spy to death a few times for me when the jerk tried to backstab me.”</p><p> The young man rubbed his arm awkwardly as he said “I don’t know. I didn’t mean to fall for you. I just wanted to get to know you better, but before I knew it I started crushing on you harder than I ever did for Miss Pauling.” </p><p>After Scout said that the both of them just stood there for a few seconds in silence. The only sound that could be heard were the cooing of the Medic’s doves. Eventually Medic stepped forward, and leaned forward to give Scout a brief soft kiss. It was quick. A feather light kiss that ended just as quickly as it began. It also left Scout wanting more. The slight smirk on Medic’s face made it clear that the man could see the desire for more kisses clear on his face.</p><p> “We might not have intended to fall in love,” Medic said. “But I can’t say that I mind too much.” </p><p>Those words cause Scout to smile a little. </p><p>“So are we…” The young man started to say only to trail off. </p><p>Boyfriends? Lovers? Scout really wasn't sure which one of those labels was more fitting for them.  </p><p>“We are together,” Medic finishes for him.</p><p>Not exactly the answer Scout was looking for, but it was an answer that made him happy. What did it matter what they refer to each other as? They were together. Nothing really mattered beyond that. With that said there was one slight concern that Scout had to voice out loud.   </p><p> “What will the others think about that?” Scout asked.</p><p> “Do you really care what they would think about our relationship?” Medic counters. </p><p>“Not really," Scout answers without even a second of hesitation. </p><p>Would he like to have their approval? Of course he would. The team drove each other crazy most of the time, but at the end of the day they were Scout’s friends and sort of like a dysfunctional family to him. Of course he would want them to be happy for him and Medic. With that said did he need their approval to go through with this relationship? Hell no.  He didn’t need their approval to go through with this relationship. He was going to date the Medic regardless of what anyone else thought of it. If they were fine with it then that was great, but if they didn’t like it too bad. </p><p>As if reading his thoughts Medic said “I don’t think you have to worry too much about it. I don’t think anyone on the team will care too much. A few might be surprised by this sudden development in our relationship, but I think ultimately they would be fine with it.” </p><p>A slight frown appeared on the German man’s face as he stopped to think for a moment. </p><p>“Honestly, after our rather strong reaction to the idea of unfusing it wouldn’t surprise me if a few of the more observant members of our team are starting to think that something is already going on between us." </p><p>That was probably true. No fusion had ever refused to unfuse before. It didn’t help that Medic and Scout had sort of made it clear that those feelings were coming from them. Heck, even once they unfused they had been slow to actually let go of each other. A few of their team members had probably already figured out that something was going on. Not that Scout really cared. Medic loved him, and he loved Medic. That was something that Scout never wanted to hide. </p><p>Scout was snapped out of his thoughts when he heard Medic say “Speaking of fusion I think we unfused far too soon. I know there are experiments I wanted to run, and I’m sure you want to make up for all of times that you didn’t get to fuse.” </p><p>Scout was about to ask if Medic was suggesting what Scout was thinking he was suggesting, but all of his thoughts went flying out the window when Medic smiled that gentle smile of his again. It was that kind gentle smile that the world rarely ever got to see. It was a smile that he only gave to his birds, and to a clear night sky full of stars. It was with a small jolt of sudden realization that Scout realized that this kind smile of his that so few people got to see was reserved for him now too apparently. Scout wouldn’t lie. That realization made him almost giddy with joy. Medic held his hand out toward the young man and asked one very simple question. </p><p>“Shall we dance?” </p><p>Scout grinned when he heard those words. He knew what the older man was truly asking. He could hear the hidden message there clear as day. </p><p>
  <em>Shall we fuse? </em>
</p><p>There was no one around to tell them not to do so. Everyone would be asleep at this time of night. The only person who might possibly still be up right now was Engineer, and he would probably stay locked away in his workshop working on some sort of project. Even if he did step out of his workshop and spot them fused he would probably let it slide. At most he would just warn them to not stay fused longer than four hours. There were no worries about being caught.</p><p> Scout took the Medic’s hand as he said “Thought you would never ask.”</p><p> There was no elaborate dance needed this time around. The second Scout took Medic’s hand the man quickly pulled the blue eyed young man into a hug. A single twirl together was all it took to make the fusion happen. Once again that warm happy feeling washed over the two of them, and suddenly they were not two people anymore. </p><p>They were Quick Heal.     </p><p>The fusion smiled as that feeling of warmth and love that came from being fused together washed over him.</p><p> “It’s good to be together again,” The fusion murmured.</p><p> The feeling of happiness that those words brought made it clear that both Scout and Medic agreed with him. The fusion looked over at Medic’s desk only to smile when he saw that Archimedes was still sitting on the desk next to the stopwatch that Medic had borrowed from Engie. The dove let out a soft coo as the fusion reached out and gently pet his soft white feathers. When the fusion moved his hand away from the bird Archimedes quickly flew up to perch on the fusion’s shoulder. The fusion chuckled softly when the bird nuzzled his cheek.</p><p> “I think it’s time that I finally put some of my experiment ideas into motion,” The fusion said out loud as he picked up the stopwatch. </p><p>The fusion smiled as he left the infirmary, and walked outside. His smile only grew a bit bigger as he looked up only to be greeted with the sight of a clear night sky full of stars. It was going to be a long night of testing, but the fusion was looking forward to seeing what Medic and Scout could accomplish when they were together.</p><p>“Let’s find out just how fast we are when we are together…”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>kleiner Vogel: According to Google translate this means little bird. I know Google translate isn’t the most accurate, so if this is wrong please feel free to correct me so that I can fix it. </p><p>So my first time ever writing a fusion story. I have seen a lot of fusion TF2 fics, and I decided to try my hand at it. I also figured if I was going to write a fusion fic I might as well have it focused on my favorite TF2 couple. </p><p>I sort of have this idea that a fusion between Scout and Medic would be rather confidant and energetic. Like he would be very comfortable in his own skin if that makes sense. He would be obsessed with experimenting much like Medic, and he has a bad habit of getting a bit stuck in his head thinking of future experiments that he could do. He could be a bit easily distracted by these thoughts, but he can get himself back on task if said task is important. He would probably talk a lot, and the second you get him talking about a subject that he likes he will become a chatterbox that you would have a hard time shutting up. In general, he’s just a very cheerful fusion with more energy than he knows what to do with. </p><p>As for his abilities I haven’t completely figured that out yet. I figure at least one of his special abilities is that he can heal anyone to full health in a matter of seconds, and anyone he heals would get a temporary speed boost.</p><p>Ultimately, my main goal with him here was sort of to act as the push to get Medic and Scout to figure out that they love each other. Basically he’s meant to be the Medic and Scout’s Garnet more or less. A fusion made of love and care rather than just one made for war, or made only to complete an objective and nothing more. If that makes sense?<br/>…It made sense in my head at any rate.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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